Birthright citizenship not debatable

Trying to decide which human beings are valid enough, or are worthy enough to be United States citizens, is wrong. Trying to end birthright citizenship, is a disgusting testament to how far this country has fallen from greatness.

On Tuesday, Oct. 30, Trump said that he planned to sign an executive order to revoke birthright citizenship. Birthright citizenship is the principle of the fourteenth amendment th

President Donald Trump, joined by First Daughter Ivanka Trump hosts a meeting in The Oval Office on April 24, 2017. The president said on Tuesday, Oct. 30 that he wanted to end birthright citizenship, possibly with an executive order. Photo via Flickr by NASA.

at all persons born in America are U.S. citizens, even if their parents are not.

President Trump said that this would take place by an executive order that he would sign. Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan said, “You obviously cannot do that” when asked about Trump’s executive order on national radio.

Our country isn’t even our own country. We took over this country, stole from the native people and thought “Well, we’re here. It’s ours.” How Americans colonized on this land is the equivalent of breaking into your neighbor’s house and having all the locks changed while they’re at work.

This country was built on freedom. The exact definition of which kind of freedom is a little bit hazy, but freedom nonetheless. Birthright citizenship and the fourteenth amendment, should not be challenged by any president and not by President Donald Trump.

One of the main points of Trump’s presidential platform on was reforming immigration, especially undocumented immigration. He has proposed different plans for his personal pet project of halting immigration, such as walls, tent cities and now trying to “eliminate” birthright citizenship.

If we allow our President to take away citizenship, we are repeating the same steps that took place before the Holocaust. When Adolf Hitler passed The Nuremberg Laws, he immediately took away citizenship from anyone who wasn’t German. Nazis stripped more than 500,000 Jews of their citizenship and their identity as Germans.

If President Trump tries to take away citizenship, he is following in the steps of arguably the world’s worst dictator. Times have changed since The Holocaust, and our government should reflect the progress made since.

The fourteenth amendment was ratified during a time where the main goal was to ensure that slaves born on U.S. soil were citizens once they were freed. Although we are removed from slavery, the fourteenth amendment made a concrete point, it is extremely valuable to be a United States citizen.

If someone receives birthright citizenship during this time, it usually means that their parents were so selfless to give up everything they had to give their child a better life. They left their homes, abandoned their jobs, their extended families and immigrated to a new country to try and ensure that their child had a chance at living a life with more meaning and more rights than theirs.

If you are a natural citizen, from a lineage of natural citizens, we should consider ourselves lucky. We were birthed into a world free of widespread oppression, where women can vote, where we can choose whatever religion we want.

We got lucky. As a fetus, we had no choice in the matter of where we were born, or who we were born to. It was a simple chance of fate that we were born in this country and not born somewhere where our mothers can’t own land, and our fathers are forced against their will to fight wars they didn’t start.

The television show, The Office, already explained how valuable U.S. citizenship is. In an episode Creed Bratton said, “I already won the lottery. I was born in the US of A, baby!” No one should have their birthright citizenship “taken away from them.” Everyone should get the chance to be this lucky.

If President Trump wants to reform immigration laws to try and reform undocumented immigration, he should do so. But he should do so in a thought out and educated way, not by thinking he has monarchical power by signing executive orders.

Opinions expressed in The Nevada Sagebrush are solely those of the author and do not necessarily express the views of The Sagebrush or of its staff. Jacey Gonzalez is a student at the University of Nevada and studies journalism. She can be reached at jaceygonzalez@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @NevadaSagebrush.